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Westminster Central Hall
 
 
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Methodist Central Hall, Westminster
Westminster

Westminster is an area of Central London, within the City of Westminster. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross....
 is on Victoria Street in London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
, just off Parliament Square
Parliament Square

Parliament Square is a town square outside the northwest end of the Palace of Westminster in London. It features a large open green area in the middle, with a group of trees to its west....
, next to the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre
Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre

The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre is a conference centre in the City of Westminster, London. It is located in the heart of the city, a minute's walk from the Palace of Westminster, seat of the United Kingdom's UK Parliament....
 and facing Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to popularly and informally as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic architecture Church , in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster....
.

It is a multi-purpose building—a Methodist church, a conference and exhibition centre, an art gallery, an office building, and a tourist attraction.






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Methodist
Methodist Central Hall, Westminster
Westminster

Westminster is an area of Central London, within the City of Westminster. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross....
 is on Victoria Street in London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
, just off Parliament Square
Parliament Square

Parliament Square is a town square outside the northwest end of the Palace of Westminster in London. It features a large open green area in the middle, with a group of trees to its west....
, next to the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre
Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre

The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre is a conference centre in the City of Westminster, London. It is located in the heart of the city, a minute's walk from the Palace of Westminster, seat of the United Kingdom's UK Parliament....
 and facing Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to popularly and informally as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic architecture Church , in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster....
.

It is a multi-purpose building—a Methodist church, a conference and exhibition centre, an art gallery, an office building, and a tourist attraction. The Great Hall seats up to 2,352 people.

History

Central Hall was erected to mark the centenary of John Wesley
John Wesley

John Wesley was an Anglican cleric and Christian Christian theologian who founded the Arminianism Methodism. The Wesley Methodist Movement began when Wesley took over open-air preaching started by George Whitefield at Hanham, Kingswood, and Bristol....
's death. It was built in 1912 on the site of the Royal Aquarium, Music Hall and Imperial Theatre
Royal Aquarium

The Royal Aquarium and Winter Garden was a Westminster, London place of amusement opened in 1876. The building was demolished in 1903. It was located immediately to the west of Westminster Abbey on Tothill Street....
, an entertainment complex that operated with varying success from 1876 to 1903.

Central Hall was funded between 1898 and 1908 by 1,025,000 contributors to the "Wesleyan Methodist Twentieth Century Fund" (or the "Million Guinea Fund", as it became more commonly known), whose aim was to raise one million guineas from one million Methodists.

Central Hall hosted the first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly
United Nations General Assembly

The United Nations General Assembly is one of the five principal United Nations System and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation....
 in 1946. It has been regularly used for political rallies—famous speakers have included Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of satyagraha?resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon ahimsa or total non-violence?which led India to Indian independence movement and inspired movements for civi...
 and Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, Order of the Garter, Order of Merit, Order of the Companions of Honour, Territorial Decoration, Fellow of the Royal Society, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Queen's Privy Council for Canada was a Politics of the United Kingdom known chiefly for his leadership of the United King...
. In 1968 it hosted the first public performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an England composer of musical theatre, the elder son of William Lloyd Webber and also the brother of the renowned cellist Julian Lloyd Webber....
's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is the second British musical theatre show written by the team of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice....
 in a concert that also included his father (organist William Lloyd Webber
William Lloyd Webber

William Southcombe Lloyd Webber was an England organist#Classical and church organists and composer.The son of William Charles Henry Webber, a self-employed plumber, he was fortunate, from a musical point of view, that his father was a keen organ 'buff' who spent what little money he had travelling to hear various organs in and around the...
 who was Musical Director at Central Hall) his brother (cellist Julian Lloyd Webber
Julian Lloyd Webber

Julian Lloyd Webber is one of the world's most renowned solo cellists....
) and pianist John Lill
John Lill

John Lill is an England classical pianist.Lill studied at the Royal College of Music and with Wilhelm Kempff. His talent emerged at an early age, as he gave his first piano recital at the age of nine....
.

It is frequently used for public enquiries, including those into the Ladbroke Grove rail crash
Ladbroke Grove rail crash

The Ladbroke Grove Rail Crash was a rail accident which occurred on 5 October 1999 at Ladbroke Grove, London, England. Thirty one people were killed as a result of the collision and over 520 injured....
, the sinking of the Marchioness pleasure boat, and the Bloody Sunday incident in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland

conventional_long_name = Northern Ireland|native_name= Tuaisceart ?ireannNorlin Airlann|motto =|image_map = Europe location N-IRL2.png...
.

From 1932 to 2000, Central Hall was the headquarters of the Methodist Church
Methodist Church of Great Britain

The Methodist Church of Great Britain or British Methodist Church is the largest John Wesley / Methodism body in the United Kingdom, with congregations across Great Britain ....
.

Architecture

Central Hall was designed by Edwin Alfred Rickards, of the firm Lanchester, Stewart and Rickards. Although clad in a renaissance
Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
 French style, it is an early example of the use of a reinforced concrete frame for a building in Britain (in some ways similar to the "Kahn system" developed by Julius Kahn in Michigan, USA, in the 1910s).

The original 1904 design included two small towers on the main (east) facade, facing Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to popularly and informally as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic architecture Church , in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster....
. These were never built, supposedly because of an outcry that they would reduce the dominance of Nicholas Hawksmoor
Nicholas Hawksmoor

Nicholas Hawksmoor was a British architect born to a humble family in Nottinghamshire.His career formed the brilliant middle link in United Kingdom trio of great baroque architects....
's west towers at Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to popularly and informally as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic architecture Church , in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster....
 in views from St. James's Park
St. James's Park

St. James's Park is a 58 acre park in City of Westminster, central London, the oldest of the Royal Parks of London. The park lies at the southernmost tip of the St....
.

The interior was similarly planned on a Piranesian scale, although the execution was rather more economical.

The domed ceiling of the Great Hall is reputed to be the second largest of its type in the world. The vast scale of the self-supporting ferro-concrete structure reflects the original intention that Central Hall was intended to be "an open-air meeting place with a roof on".

The angels in the exterior spandrel
Spandrel

A spandrel is the space between two arches or between an arch and a rectangular enclosure.There are four or five accepted and cognate meanings of spandrel in architecture and art history, mostly relating to the space between a curved figure and a rectangular boundary - such as the space between the curve of an arch and a rectilinear b...
s were designed by Henry Poole RA.

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